7. Labour and Machinery

There were a total of 65,400 people working on agricultural
holdings at 1 June 2015. This was made up of 25,700 working
occupiers (comprising 39 per cent of the total workforce), 12,300
working spouses (19 per cent), 13,300 full time regular staff (20
per cent), 7,300 part time regular staff (11 per cent) and 6,800
casual and seasonal staff (ten per cent).

Over half of the total agricultural workforce was located in
either Grampian (10,600 or 16 per cent), Highland (9,700 or 15 per
cent), Tayside (8,400 or 13 per cent) or Dumfries and Galloway
(6,800 or ten per cent). These totals represent the number of
people employed or working on 1 June 2015, but do not take into
account differing working patterns or seasonal labour.

Chart 7.1: Distribution of the workforce by sub-region,
June 2015

Map 12 illustrates the employment rates by local authority
(number of people employed in agriculture as a percentage of people
employed in the area), showing highest levels of employment in
agriculture in Na h-Eileanan Siar, Orkney and Shetland. In
addition, there is also a clear split between local authorities
within and outwith the central belt, demonstrating the relative
importance of agriculture in terms of employment among these
regions.